EXCLUSIVE: Jennifer Finnigan is the first cast member set in David E. Kelley’s TNT medical drama pilot Chelsea General. Based on CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s upcoming novel Monday Mornings, the project follows the lives of five surgeons as they push the limits of their abilities and confront their personal and professional failings. Finnigan will play one of them, Dr. Tina Ridgeway, a neurosurgeon who has a fling with a fellow neurosurgeon. Kelley and Gupta, who is a practicing neurosurgeon, are executive producing the pilot; Kelley’s frequent collaborator Bill D’Elia is set to direct. This marks Crossing Jordan alumna Finnigan’s return to drama after a string of comedy series, most recently ABC’s Better With You.

American Horror Story‘sKate Mara has been cast in Netflix’s first original series, David Fincher’s drama House Of Cards starring Kevin Spacey. The political thriller, based on Michael Dobbs’ novel and the 1990 British series it spawned, stars Spacey as Rep. Frank Underwood, the Majority Whip of the US House of Representatives who, after getting is passed over for Secretary of State, hatches a plot to bring down the new President. Mara will play Zoe Barnes, a reporter for a top Washington newspaper who, desperate for a break, makes a deal with Underwood for a scoop that could cost her her soul. She joins Spacey and fellow lead Robin Wright who plays Underwood’s wife. Also cast in the MRC-produced series is Kristen Connolly (The Cabin In The Woods) who will recur as the headstrong executive assistant of another Congressman. Mara, sister of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo star Rooney Mara, most recently recurred on the first season of FX’s hit horror drama American Horror Story. She’s with UTA and the Schiff Co.